Micro-business: do your own accounting or hire an accountant

Quick answer. In a micro-business, accounting is lightened: a revenue book is often enough, with no balance sheet. Most early stages can be handled alone, with an invoicing tool. A chartered accountant becomes useful as soon as VAT, thresholds or a plan to switch to a company come into play.

You are launching an activity as a micro-business and the question quickly arises: should you handle everything yourself or entrust your accounting to a professional? The answer is not binary. The micro regime was designed to be kept alone at the start, but certain signals radically change the equation. This guide distinguishes what you can genuinely do yourself from what justifies support, and lists the triggers to watch.

We write as a chartered-accounting firm registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables of Île-de-France. Our aim here is not to sell you an engagement, but to help you decide with full knowledge of the facts. If you have not registered yet, our complete micro-enterprise creation guide covers the fundamentals of getting started and choosing your regime.

The micro-business benefits from lightened accounting obligations. That is precisely what makes autonomy possible at the outset. In practice, three obligations structure your bookkeeping.

The revenue book must be kept chronologically, from the very first euro received, and it applies to all micro-entrepreneurs without exception. It records each receipt with its date, amount, payment method and the client's identity.

The purchase register is mandatory only for certain activities: the sale of goods, supplies and food to be consumed on the premises or taken away, as well as accommodation services. A pure service activity (consulting, writing, development) therefore does not have to keep this register.

You must also keep your invoices for 10 years. In a micro-business, there is neither a balance sheet nor an income statement to produce. That is the major difference from a company subject to corporate income tax, where producing the annual accounts calls for technical skills.

The declaration of turnover to URSSAF is made on a monthly or quarterly basis, chosen at creation. Often overlooked: this declaration is mandatory even in the absence of receipts. A month with no turnover must be declared as zero, on pain of a penalty.

The dedicated bank account is another source of confusion. It is mandatory only if your annual turnover exceeds €10,000 for two consecutive calendar years, under the 2019 PACTE Act. You then have 12 months to comply. The good news: a simple personal current account dedicated to the activity is enough, you are not required to open a so-called professional account, which is often more expensive.

The underestimated risk. Mixing personal and professional flows in a single account is the most frequent mistake we see. Even below the €10,000 threshold, separating flows from the start saves you hours of sorting in the event of an audit and makes your revenue book more reliable. A dedicated account is not only an obligation: it is a steering tool that shows you at a glance the real cumulative turnover collected over the year.

The micro regime relies on a flat-rate allowance representing your expenses. This allowance replaces the deduction of actual costs: you cannot deduct your expenses one by one. This is a decisive point in the trade-off that follows.

These 2026 micro ceilings are valid until 2028. On the tax side, you have two routes. Either taxation under the income-tax scale, applied after the allowance. Or the discharging income-tax payment (versement libératoire), which deducts the tax at the same time as social contributions, subject to a reference taxable income for year N-2 below a ceiling per household share (ceiling to be checked each year).

Trade-off. The allowance is a tax fiction: it is granted whether your actual expenses are low or high. As long as your real costs remain clearly below the allowance, the micro regime is advantageous and manageable alone. As soon as your actual expenses durably exceed the allowance percentage, you pay tax and contributions on a theoretical profit higher than your real profit: that is the moment to study an actual-profit regime or a company.

At the start, bookkeeping is largely within your reach with an invoicing and revenue-tracking tool. Many micro-entrepreneurs equip themselves with solutions such as Tiime or Pennylane to issue compliant invoices, track collections and keep the revenue book automatically. These tools do not replace analysis, but they secure the repetitive part and prepare for the arrival of electronic invoicing.

Going it alone makes sense when your activity is simple, with no VAT invoiced, no significant actual costs and far from the ceilings. Conversely, some situations quickly exceed what one keeps serenely at home. For the detail of the cost of delegation, see also our analysis of what a chartered accountant costs in a micro-business.

A useful legal point: only a chartered accountant registered with the Ordre may keep, centralise, close or review someone else's accounts on a habitual basis and for remuneration, under Article 2 of Ordinance No. 45-2138 of 19 September 1945. Illegal practice of the profession is punishable under Article 433-17 of the Criminal Code. Be wary, therefore, of low-cost bookkeeping offers not backed by any registered professional. Note too that chartered-accountant fees are free: no rate is regulated, and any engagement must be priced by a quote and then framed by an engagement letter.

This is where the real trade-off plays out. Several signals should trigger at least a review with a professional, ideally before the situation becomes tense.

1. You are approaching the micro ceilings (€203,100 for sales, €83,600 for services and BNC). Exceeding them takes you out of the regime and changes everything: it must be anticipated, not endured.
2. You are leaving the basic VAT exemption. The thresholds are distinct from the micro ceilings: €37,500 for services, €85,000 for trade, with increased thresholds of €41,250 and €93,500. Law No. 2025-1044 of 3 November 2025 maintained these thresholds and dropped the planned single threshold of €25,000. Managing VAT (invoicing, returns, right to deduct) is a job in itself.
3. Your actual expenses exceed the allowance. You then pay more than necessary: an actual-profit regime or a company may become relevant again.
4. You are considering switching to a company (EURL, SASU). The remuneration trade-off, the choice of status and the tax mechanics deserve support.
5. Complexity increases: first employee, activity abroad, URSSAF or tax audit, a mix of activities.

What the authorities look at. During an audit, the consistency between your turnover declarations to URSSAF, your revenue book and your bank receipts is examined first. A revenue book kept in real time, invoices numbered without gaps and a dedicated account are your best defence, far more than a last-minute catch-up.

Our reading. In the micro-entrepreneur files we support, the most poorly anticipated trigger is almost never the micro ceiling: it is VAT. A client we support had crossed the exemption threshold without realising it, continuing to invoice without tax for several months. The correction was manageable, but it would have been avoided by simply tracking the cumulative turnover monthly. Our recommendation: do it yourself while it stays simple, but get occasional support as soon as a threshold approaches.

In practice. Sound micro-business bookkeeping comes down to a light but regular routine.

• Record each receipt in the book as soon as it is collected, without waiting.
• Issue continuously numbered invoices, with the mandatory mentions.
• Track your rolling cumulative turnover to anticipate the VAT thresholds and the micro ceiling.
• Declare your turnover to URSSAF on time, even at zero.
• File your invoices in a dedicated folder, kept for 10 years.
• Hold an annual review with a professional to check that the regime is still the right one.

To go further depending on your profile, you can consult our note on opening a micro-business as a minor or, in case of a switch, our company-creation service. Managing VAT and tax falls under our tax and VAT support.

Points to watch in 2026. Three elements deserve particular attention this year. First, the VAT exemption thresholds confirmed by the Act of 3 November 2025: watch the cumulative total, because crossing it makes you liable and requires you to re-invoice with VAT at the standard rate of 20%. Second, the zero declaration is still due in the absence of receipts, a frequent cause of penalty. Finally, the dedicated bank account threshold (€10,000 over two years) is triggered silently: check your situation at the start of each year.

Our chartered-accounting engagement covers both the one-off review and full bookkeeping, depending on the level of delegation you want. The relationship is framed by an engagement letter, a mandatory document that precisely sets out the scope, after a quote that prices the engagement upfront.